A percentile is a position in the BLS distribution. It is not a promised offer or career forecast.
10th
$27,860
25th
$31,960
Median
$36,670
75th
$42,830
90th
$47,840
National context
What changes around the median
Sewing Machine Operators ranked 101 of 105 detailed production occupations with a published annual median. The national annual mean was 2.5% above the median, showing why one center point does not describe the full distribution.
Area estimates below use the same SOC code and release. They do not adjust for cost of living, experience, benefits, hours, employer mix, or remote-work policy.
Published metro rows
Highest medians for Sewing Machine Operators
Ranked only among metros with a published annual median. No cost-of-living adjustment.
Six highest published annual medians
Bend, OR: $50,830. Glens Falls, NY: $50,000. Appleton, WI: $48,460. Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV: $48,190. Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA: $47,220. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA: $47,220.
Use the published range, job count, place pattern, and survey limits as separate facts. The guide stays tied to SOC 51-6031 and the May 2025 BLS release.
Questions, answered
Sewing Machine Operators: common wage questions
What is the median wage for Sewing Machine Operators?
The May 2025 BLS OEWS release published a U.S. median of $36,670 per year for Sewing Machine Operators. It is an occupation estimate, not a promised offer or an individual's pay.
How many Sewing Machine Operators jobs does BLS estimate nationally?
BLS published an employment estimate of 104,880 wage and salary jobs. The estimate is not a count of current openings and excludes the self-employed.
Why is the mean wage different from the median for Sewing Machine Operators?
The published annual mean is 2.5% above the median. The mean uses every published wage value, while the median marks the middle of the distribution.
Which metro has the highest published median for Sewing Machine Operators?
From market data to your evidence
Tailor for a real Sewing Machine Operators job, not a generic wage number.
Pick an eligible listing, then MeritLog can help you prepare from experience you have confirmed. WageScope never turns a BLS estimate into a qualification or résumé claim.
What the national Sewing Machine Operators median says
The May 2025 BLS OEWS estimate puts the U.S. median for Sewing Machine Operators at $36,670 per year. Median means the middle. Half of the wage values used for this estimate fall below that point. Half fall above it. The median is not one worker's pay. It is not a job offer. It is one clear mark for the middle of a broad national pay range.
BLS also lists 104,880 wage and salary jobs for Sewing Machine Operators. That count covers jobs in the survey's scope. It does not count open job ads. It also leaves out people who work for themselves. The wage and job counts share the same May 2025 reference point, so they can be read together without mixing time periods.
The Sewing Machine Operators mean of $37,600 per year is 2.5% above the $36,670 median on the same published median. Mean means BLS adds the wage values and divides the total by the number of jobs behind the estimate. A gap between mean and median shows that the shape is not even. It does not explain the cause of the gap.
BLS names this record Sewing Machine Operators and gives it SOC 51-6031. The two-part code is the stable key for this page. A role with a close name keeps a different code, wage row, job count, and area pattern. WageScope never joins two SOC records because their words sound alike.
For SOC 51-6031, the U.S. row reports 104,880 wage and salary jobs. Its annual median is $36,670 per year. Its matching mean is $37,600 per year. These facts come from one national row and one May 2025 release.
The same SOC 51-6031 appears in 51 state or territory rows, 236 metro rows, and 91 nonmetro rows in this artifact. A missing local row stays missing. The national record does not fill it, and a nearby SOC does not stand in for it.
Read the Sewing Machine Operators wage ladder from low to high
The 10th percentile is $27,860 per year. The 25th percentile is $31,960 per year. The median is $36,670 per year. The 75th percentile is $42,830 per year. The 90th percentile is $47,840 per year. Each point marks a place in the same national wage spread.
A percentile is a rank point. It is not a career step. For example, the 10th percentile means 10% of wage values are at or below that mark. It does not mean a new worker starts there. The 90th percentile means 90% are at or below that mark. It does not mean a worker can reach it after a set number of years.
The middle half runs from $31,960 to $42,830 per year. That span is $10,870. The full 10th-to-90th span is $19,980. These spans show why one median cannot stand in for every Sewing Machine Operators job.
What the gaps around the Sewing Machine Operators median show
The median is 31.6% above the 10th percentile. The 90th percentile is 30.5% above the median. The two sides do not have to match. A wider upper side can pull the mean up. A wider lower side can pull it down. The data shows the shape, but not the reason for that shape.
The 25th-to-median step is $4,710 per year. The median-to-75th step is $6,160 per year. These two steps give a closer look at the middle half. They are often more useful than a single top-to-bottom gap because they keep the center in view.
Use this ladder as a fact check when you read a job post. A posted range can sit below, near, or above these BLS marks. That does not make the post wrong. A job may differ by place, hours, level, field, employer, or work rules. Keep the posted range tied to that listing. Keep the BLS range tied to the whole occupation.
Metro areas with the highest published Sewing Machine Operators medians
WageScope found 236 metro rows with the same published annual median for Sewing Machine Operators. It sorts only those rows. It does not fill a blank row. It does not turn a blank into zero. The first six rows below have the highest published medians in this release. The list is a wage rank, not a rank of places to live or work.
The first row is Bend, OR, at $50,830 per year. The middle metro row by published pay is Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT, at $36,290 per year. That middle metro mark gives one more check on how far the top rows sit from a common place in the set.
These are nominal wages. Nominal means the dollar amount shown in the source. This list does not adjust for local price levels. It also does not tell us how many openings an area has now. Use a local page to see price-level context when an exact BEA row exists. Use the separate job block to inspect current employer-title matches.
1. Bend, OR has a Sewing Machine Operators median of $50,830 per year, or $14,160 above the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. BLS lists 50 jobs there, against 104,880 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 0.7.
2. Glens Falls, NY has a Sewing Machine Operators median of $50,000 per year, or $13,330 above the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. BLS lists 40 jobs there, against 104,880 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 1.33.
Job count
Metro areas with the largest Sewing Machine Operators job estimates
A large wage can appear in a small job market. A large job market can have a lower wage. That is why WageScope keeps pay and job count in separate views. The six rows below have the largest published employment estimates for Sewing Machine Operators among metro rows in this release. Employment means the number of wage and salary jobs in scope. It does not mean open roles.
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA has the largest listed metro estimate in this set, at 9,310 jobs. Its median is $37,130 per year. Compare that with Bend, OR, which leads the published median list. The leaders may match, or they may not. Each list answers a different question.
Job count can help you see the scale of a local labor market. It cannot show churn, new hiring, job quality, remote work, or the chance that one person will get hired. Current listings add a second view, but they are a dated sample of posts. WageScope never turns the listing count into a demand score.
1. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA has 9,310 estimated Sewing Machine Operators jobs, or 8.9% of the national 104,880 job estimate. Its median is $37,130 per year, or $460 above the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. Its location quotient is 2.2.
Local share
Where Sewing Machine Operators has a larger share of local jobs
Location quotient is a share check. A value of 1 means the role has the same share of local jobs as it has across the nation. A value above 1 means the local share is larger. A value below 1 means the local share is smaller. It is not a count. It is not a wage. It does not say that a place is growing.
Mayaguez, PR has the highest published location quotient in this bounded metro set, at 67.3. The same row lists 2,370 jobs and a median of $21,840 per year. Reading all three values keeps a high share from being mistaken for a large market or high pay.
A small area can have a high location quotient because the role makes up a large part of a small local job base. A large area can have many workers and a lower quotient. Use the quotient to ask where the role is common in the mix. Use employment to ask how many jobs BLS estimated. Use the wage fields to ask what the published pay range looks like.
1. Mayaguez, PR has a Sewing Machine Operators location quotient of 67.3. BLS lists 2,370 jobs and a median of $21,840 per year, or $14,830 below the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. The U.S. job estimate is 104,880.
2. Arecibo, PR has a Sewing Machine Operators location quotient of 43.14. BLS lists 1,010 jobs and a median of $22,550 per year, or $14,120 below the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. The U.S. job estimate is 104,880.
SOC family
How Sewing Machine Operators sits in Production
Sewing Machine Operators is SOC 51-6031. BLS places it in the Production major group. Among 105 detailed roles in that group with a published annual median, Sewing Machine Operators ranks 101 of 105 by median. This is a pay rank inside one source family. It is not a rank of skill, value, status, or career fit.
The closest same-family medians help set a fair peer frame. They do not claim that the work is the same. Official SOC titles can cover different tasks and settings. WageScope uses the family only because BLS publishes that link. It does not infer a career move, a skill match, or a hiring path from the wage gap.
Use these peer rows to spot whether the $36,670 median sits near many family roles or far from them. Then open a role's own page before using its number. Each role has a different code, job count, wage spread, and place pattern. One family label does not erase those facts.
1. Sewers, Hand, SOC 51-6051, has a U.S. median of $36,480 per year. Its gap from Sewing Machine Operators is $190 per year.
2. Bakers, SOC 51-3011, has a U.S. median of $37,160 per year. Its gap from Sewing Machine Operators is $490 per year.
3. Textile, Apparel, and Furnishings Workers, All Other, SOC 51-6099, has a U.S. median of $37,280 per year. Its gap from Sewing Machine Operators is $610 per year.
Data care
How much care to use with the Sewing Machine Operators estimate
BLS marks the employment relative standard error at 1.6%. It marks the mean-wage relative standard error at 0.4%. A relative standard error, or RSE, is a survey precision flag. A smaller RSE often means less sampling uncertainty. It is not the chance that one worker's pay is right or wrong.
The employment RSE applies to the 104,880 job estimate. The mean-wage RSE applies to the published mean of $37,600 per year. These fields do not give a matching RSE for the median or each percentile. WageScope shows the fields BLS published and does not move one RSE to another measure.
Survey values can change when BLS updates its methods, sample, models, or source year. That is why this page keeps May 2025 in view. A later release can replace these facts only after MeritLog pins the new official files, checks the rows, and reviews the page again. A changed number is not treated as a correction unless the source says so.
A simple way to compare Sewing Machine Operators across places
First, compare the same wage metric. Use annual with annual or hourly with hourly. Next, check the source date. Keep May 2025 BLS rows together. Then read employment and location quotient beside pay. This stops a high median from standing in for market size or local share. Last, add BEA price-level context only when the exact place has an approved row.
A state, metro, and nonmetro area are not the same kind of map. Do not rank them in one list without saying so. WageScope groups like with like. It also keeps a national row as a broad bench mark. A local page can show the local row, its state row when that link is exact, and the U.S. row without blending them.
If a value is blank, keep it blank. If BLS marks a top code, read it as a lower bound. Do not fill a blank from a nearby place. Do not turn a wage gap into a claim about taxes, hours, benefits, work rules, or a household budget. Those facts are not in the OEWS row.
Move from Sewing Machine Operators wage data to one real listing
The job block on this page uses a strict employer-title match for Sewing Machine Operators. It may show fewer rows than the full MeritLog job search. That is on purpose. A false negative is safer here than a job card for a different role. Each card keeps its employer, place, source, and seen date. The cards do not change the BLS wage data.
Open one listing and read its own pay, work place, level, and needs. Compare its posted range with the BLS spread only as context. A posted range is set by an employer for one role. The BLS range is a survey view across many jobs. Neither source proves that a person is fit for the work.
When you tailor a résumé, use work facts you can back up. Do not turn $36,670 into a skill or result. Do not copy a BLS job count into your work history. MeritLog can help shape confirmed experience for a chosen listing. The wage page stays public and read only. It does not save a job or create a résumé on page load.
What this Sewing Machine Operators page does not claim
This page does not say what one Sewing Machine Operators worker earns. It does not promise that a job pays the median. It does not state a starting wage. It does not explain why the mean and median differ. It does not add benefits, tips, stock, bonus pay, taxes, or work hours unless BLS includes them in the published wage measure.
The page does not count people who work for themselves. It does not turn 104,880 into current openings. It does not read private MeritLog jobs or Career Memory. MeritLog does not use the page to build a private career profile. While public analytics are on, GA4, Ahrefs, and Meta may receive the public page URL; Your Privacy Choices or Global Privacy Control turns that off. The page does not send its text to a model.
The best use is narrow and clear. Read the May 2025 BLS wage range. Check how the role changes by place. Add the separate 2024 BEA price level when an exact row exists. Inspect a dated employer-title match. Then make a résumé choice from facts you have confirmed. Keep each source tied to the question it can answer.
Bend, OR has the highest annual median among the metro rows with a published value on this page, at $50,830. This is a nominal BLS estimate with no price-level adjustment.
Are the current job listings included in the BLS wage calculation?
No. MeritLog shows eligible live public-catalog listings separately, with their own source and observation date. Posted pay never changes the official BLS distribution.
3. Appleton, WI has a Sewing Machine Operators median of $48,460 per year, or $11,790 above the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. BLS lists 110 jobs there, against 104,880 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 1.32.
4. Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV has a Sewing Machine Operators median of $48,190 per year, or $11,520 above the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. BLS lists 460 jobs there, against 104,880 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 0.6.
5. Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA has a Sewing Machine Operators median of $47,220 per year, or $10,550 above the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. BLS lists 50 jobs there, against 104,880 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 0.75.
6. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA has a Sewing Machine Operators median of $47,220 per year, or $10,550 above the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. BLS lists 220 jobs there, against 104,880 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 0.29.
2. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ has 6,700 estimated Sewing Machine Operators jobs, or 6.4% of the national 104,880 job estimate. Its median is $37,780 per year, or $1,110 above the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. Its location quotient is 1.05.
3. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL has 3,680 estimated Sewing Machine Operators jobs, or 3.5% of the national 104,880 job estimate. Its median is $30,620 per year, or $6,050 below the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. Its location quotient is 1.94.
4. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN has 3,450 estimated Sewing Machine Operators jobs, or 3.3% of the national 104,880 job estimate. Its median is $36,220 per year, or $450 below the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. Its location quotient is 1.13.
5. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX has 2,420 estimated Sewing Machine Operators jobs, or 2.3% of the national 104,880 job estimate. Its median is $35,260 per year, or $1,410 below the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. Its location quotient is 0.89.
6. Mayaguez, PR has 2,370 estimated Sewing Machine Operators jobs, or 2.3% of the national 104,880 job estimate. Its median is $21,840 per year, or $14,830 below the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. Its location quotient is 67.3.
3. Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC has a Sewing Machine Operators location quotient of 17.88. BLS lists 1,860 jobs and a median of $46,540 per year, or $9,870 above the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. The U.S. job estimate is 104,880.
4. Dalton, GA has a Sewing Machine Operators location quotient of 10.05. BLS lists 440 jobs and a median of $34,180 per year, or $2,490 below the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. The U.S. job estimate is 104,880.
5. Greensboro-High Point, NC has a Sewing Machine Operators location quotient of 5.93. BLS lists 1,460 jobs and a median of $32,470 per year, or $4,200 below the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. The U.S. job estimate is 104,880.
6. Elkhart-Goshen, IN has a Sewing Machine Operators location quotient of 5.44. BLS lists 470 jobs and a median of $40,130 per year, or $3,460 above the U.S. Sewing Machine Operators median. The U.S. job estimate is 104,880.
4. Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders, SOC 51-6042, has a U.S. median of $35,650 per year. Its gap from Sewing Machine Operators is $1,020 per year.
5. Shoe and Leather Workers and Repairers, SOC 51-6041, has a U.S. median of $37,800 per year. Its gap from Sewing Machine Operators is $1,130 per year.
6. Cutters and Trimmers, Hand, SOC 51-9031, has a U.S. median of $38,020 per year. Its gap from Sewing Machine Operators is $1,350 per year.
Precise employer-title matches for Sewing Machine Operators
Matched from employer-posted title terms, not a BLS classification. Confirm the listing's location because this occupation-wide set is not a U.S. place filter. A posted range never changes the official distribution above.
